Unlike any other "rune converters" found on the web, which simply do a letter for letter substitution, futhorc.com does a real runic transcription of the sounds of modern English words.

There are many different runic alphabets and many places to learn about them on the web. Two reliable places to start are the Omniglot and Wikipedia entries. The most complete rune link site is Runes, Alphabet of Mystery. The version of the runic alphabet used here is based the Anglo-Saxon futhorc augmented with some of the later medieval runes to account for some of the contrasts needed for phonetic rendering of Modern English. The English futhorc, documented primarily from between the years 500 and 900, was adequate for writing Old English, but Modern English has many more distinctive sounds than Old English.

The table below shows each phonetic rune with its IPA equivalent.

ᚠ

ᚡ

ᚢ

ᚦ

ᚧ

ᚩ

ᚱ

ᚴ

ᚳ

ᚹ

ᚻ

ᚾ

ᛁ

ᛃ

ᛄ

f

v

u, ʊ

θ

ð

o, ɔ

r

k

ʃ

w

h

n

i, ɪ

j

ʒ

ᛈ

ᛋ

ᛏ

ᛒ

ᛖ

ᛗ

ᛚ

ᛝ

ᛞ

ᚪ

ᚫ

ᚣ

ᚸ

ᛏᚳ

ᛞᛄ

p

s, z

t

b

e, ɛ

m

l

ŋ

d

ɑ, ɒ

æ

ə

g

ʧ

ʤ

The alphabetic runes are based on the late medieval runes and are used for unknown words. They are shown in the table below.